A trip into the walled garden I'm not willing to take

Disappointing - Looks too much like previous models

I went in "late" on the day preorders began to preorder my iPhone 7 and expected to see delivery estimates in November but this year I got a delivery estimate of Sept 16th (Launch Day). I ordered a Matte Black iPhone 7 with 128 GB. I almost ordered an iP7 case but decided to wait and see how badly my existing iP6 leather case fit before deciding whether to drop another 40+ bucks. I think if I had tried to get the shiny black one I would have had to wait but I didn't want something that's even slipperier than a matte finish iPhone.

I used Apple's iPhone Upgrade program where I take a no interest loan with 24 payments and if I want to I can treat it like a lease and turn in my iP7 for a new model next year and start over again. If I decide I like what I have, after 2 years it's paid for and I can continue using it or buy a new one.

My phone is on Verizon and unlocked which means I can take it to Sprint, At&t or Tmo at a time of my choosing rather than sitting through any carrier unlocking rituals like what I had to endure taking my iP6 from At&t to Verizon earlier this year.

The evening I got my phone, I needed to go for a 5 mile run so I decided to do the activation before my run. This was not a good idea. I had to turn off find my iPhone on my old phone then put it in airplane mode before activating the new one. Then I had to sit through botched app install ritual and I even spent time on the phone with Apple trying to learn if they had a server outage. I tried reaching the app store from my Mac mini and it was down there as well so I assumed it was an infrastructure issue. There was nothing I could do about it so I decided to go running without my phone and wait until I got home to try restoring apps. Luckily, by the time I got home about an hour later, most of my apps had come already back. Either my home network (Comcast) had been acting up or Apple's server had been acting up. I didn't care which, I just cared that my stuff was back on my phone and I could wipe my iP6 to prepare it for its next owner.

Saturday morning, I went for a run in the rain and I used my phone without regard to whether it was getting wet or not! What a new experience! Touchscreens don't fare particularly well when they are dripping wet and I found myself drying off the screen and drying off my fingers to get certain things to work properly. Still it is quite a relief to have a phone that is rated water resistant and I can take it with me on wet messy runs without worrying about it getting damaged. This, along with faster CPU, more battery life and more storage made the upgrade worthwhile for me. I wasn't thrilled about losing the headphone jack.

There's a YouTube guy saying you can drill your iPhone 7 to get it back. Don't do it! That video is a cruel joke. At first I wondered if Apple might have simply put a new case over old guts to force people to buy their wireless earbuds so I checked iFixit. iFixit made it clear there are vital components inside where the headphone jack used to be, namely the haptic motor. If you drill your iPhone 7, you destroy the haptic and you don't get feedback when you press the home button any more. I bet the haptic does the vibration as well so your phone wouldn't vibrate any more either and of course it wouldn't be water resistant any more either.

I've decided to add a poll that expires in 4 weeks, just as the last of the iPhone 7/7+ preorders have most likely been delivered... You can pick multiple responses...

I wanted to join the iPhone Upgrade Plan, but you can't do that online with T-Mobile. In fact, the only online option through Apple for T-Mo is to pay full price. So instead I ordered it directly from T-Mo with a payment plan. Although I stayed up and placed the order immediately when it became available, my order is still stuck on "Being Processed."

There's a YouTube guy saying you can drill your iPhone 7 to get it back. Don't do it! That video is a cruel joke. At first I wondered if Apple might have simply put a new case over old guts to force people to buy their wireless earbuds so I checked iFixit. iFixit made it clear there are vital components inside where the headphone jack used to be, namely the haptic motor. If you drill your iPhone 7, you destroy the haptic and you don't get feedback when you press the home button any more. I bet the haptic does the vibration as well so your phone wouldn't vibrate any more either and of course it wouldn't be water resistant any more either.

I wanted to join the iPhone Upgrade Plan, but you can't do that online with T-Mobile. In fact, the only online option through Apple for T-Mo is to pay full price. So instead I ordered it directly from T-Mo with a payment plan. Although I stayed up and placed the order immediately when it became available, my order is still stuck on "Being Processed."

But you can still charge it in the microwave, right?

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I 'm sure you can charge it by walking too close to one of those old fashioned nuclear reactors, as well. I bet people in Chernobyl wouldn't even need charging bricks for their iPhone 7s!

It turns out you CAN drill your iPhone 7 (not too deep, mind you!) without damaging it but you still don't get a functioning headphone jack. You just get plastic and metal shavings all over the place around and inside your phone.

It turns out you CAN drill your iPhone 7 (not too deep, mind you!) without damaging it but you still don't get a functioning headphone jack. You just get plastic and metal shavings all over the place around and inside your phone.

I'm glad that you were able to get your 7. I just canceled my Verizon service, and I will be trading my Verizon 7 plus in for an AT&T 7 plus. It is a solid device. No frills, but good build/design quality and very snappy.

I'm glad that you were able to get your 7. I just canceled my Verizon service, and I will be trading my Verizon 7 plus in for an AT&T 7 plus. It is a solid device. No frills, but good build/design quality and very snappy.

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Keep the Verizon 7 plus and just port your line. I've heard the Verizon 7 plus has better radios than the Att 7 plus. I know this is the case with the 7 and I believe it applies to the 7 plus as well. It can work on all networks while the Att and Tmo versions are lacking the ability to run on either Sprint or Verizon.